


Fallout Characters: The Background Collection

by opal_writes_things



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Background - Freeform, Character Development, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-14 18:03:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8023735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opal_writes_things/pseuds/opal_writes_things
Summary: The complete, sometimes long-winded collection of my Fallout 4 OC's background stories.Will be constantly changing and updated as characters continue to be developed and stories evolve.
Enjoy! XOXO





	Fallout Characters: The Background Collection

**Author's Note:**

> This document will serve as a potluck of my collective Fallout 4 OC background stories, as well as any additional notes I feel I need to add for each of them.
> 
> Headings marked with a [WIP] are--you guessed it--works in progress. They're being currently developed as I work on the relationships between each of my characters. I'll do my best to tie each of them in to each other as they would realistically.
> 
> Years in parenthesis will be at the end of some paragraphs. This helps both me keep track of when things happened in the FO4 Universe, as well as giving you, the readers, a little timeline of each character's lives.

** AGATHA **

** Pre-War **

Agatha Greene was born on December 12th, 2049, and was raised in Boston, having a decently standard childhood. She was an only child, as it had been very taxing on her mother during pregnancy and her parents didn’t want to risk having a second child and having complications. She excelled in school and skipped the first two grades in high school, graduating at the age of 16 and going on to a local university with a full scholarship. When she was 17 she moved away from home, staying in downtown Lexington in a small apartment and working part-time at a local general store. Originally her plan was to study medicine as her father had, and she completed a year of medical school before her focus shifted instead to biology. Rather than working towards a generic biology degree, she majored in botany, which stemmed from her green thumb and her love of plants and gardening with her mother growing up.

In order to continue her education to the fullest extent, she applied to, and subsequently was accepted into, the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. CIT had just added onto their science program and on completing her degree in botany, particularly in medicinal plant and seed studies, Agatha was offered a position as both a part-time professor and scientist in the realm of cultivating and preserving plants--the youngest member of the institute at 23. For three years she worked alongside some of her previously idolized scientists, and made several discoveries into the cross-breeding of various species of food plants. She even began a program where students who had mild ailments or illnesses could peruse the institute’s gardens for medicinal herbs and plants, and she would assist them in creating natural remedies that would aid them in their recovery. _(2074)_

The war between the US and their Communist enemies turned even the greatest minds in the CIT paranoid, however, and many former scientists went on to work with the government to create weapons or engineer other fighting gear and utilities. Agatha, knowing how crucial it would be to mankind’s survival to have a viable way to grow food, suggested starting a seed vault that would survive a nuclear attack and the following fallout in order to preserve species of both food-growing plants and rare or dying breeds. Construction was augmented by the CIT's relationship with RobCo and Vault-Tec, and a three-storied underground Vault was built in the rural land to the east of Sanctuary Hills. Communicating with several other scientific universities in the US alone yielded hundreds of thousands of seed packets for storage, and a handful of international organizations donated packets as well. Agatha personally oversaw the transportation of seeds into the Vault and ensured that a fair amount of seeds of plants with medical purposes were included as well. _(2074-2077)_

On October 22, 2077, around 7:30 AM, Agatha arrived at the CIT to find federal agents tearing her laboratory and classroom space apart. Demanding to know what was going on, the biology head said that there was some suspicion on the government's side as to if the seed packets that were coming from other countries were indeed filled with seeds, or instead contained terrorist communication or intel. Even though documents had been signed by all parties involved to ensure that the objects in several country’s boxes were indeed seeds and nothing else, the CIT botany program had to look the other way as government workers destroyed boxes and boxes of seeds. There was no real way to know exactly what was contained in each container, as each country sealed their boxes and packets on their own, and paranoia and suspicion had overridden trust in the system on the government’s part.

The accusation, as well as the sight of invaluable seed packets gutted and spilling onto the floor, sent Agatha into a frenzied panic. She screamed at the agents and by-standing scientists both, saying the future of growing valuable plant life was laying scattered on the floor, and threw off her coat, saying she quit the institute. She had no respect for anyone, scientists or not, that failed to value the importance of their project and endangered the future of humanity that rested within the seeds they had been storing. A few of her co-workers attempted to calm her down but she wouldn’t have it, harshly insulting those who had let the federal agents get so far as to destroy what could be humanity’s future. As she left with the few undamaged seed boxes in tow, she threatened anyone who would come and disturb the seed vault, and drove home to the homestead. 

Reports of bombs dropping in DC and Pennsylvania were just playing over the TV when she got home, and realizing what was going on, she grabbed a kit she kept underneath one of her counters and ran to the bunker for personnel who would be working in the Vault once it was completely operational. She used her key card (the master card made for the project) to open the doors and was setting the automatic bolting sequence in place when she heard a loud explosion. Trying to make it down the stairs, the entire stairwell was shaken violently and she fell, hitting her head along the wall and passing out. _(2077)_

* * *

** Post-War **

When Agatha came to nearly a day later, she had dried blood caked on her head and her ribs ached, but she was alive. She felt weak and nauseous, and realized with growing horror that the roof of the bunker was cracked. Dirt shifted between the fractures and fell like dust--but more importantly, her Geiger counter inside the kit she had grabbed told her the fault was letting in growing amounts of radiation. Discovering that the stash of anti-radiation medication in the bunker was less than a week’s dosage, and the bolting sequence for the bunker in place for three more weeks at least, she was left with no other option but to do her best to survive. Food and drink supplies were fine, as well as her waste recycling and air filtering systems, but the radiation was slowly eating away at her. Soon it became impossible for her to keep any food down and she had to inject herself with vitamin and nutritional concoctions, her body itching all over and fatigue making it difficult to move much. With only a week left before the bolting would be released but knowing the end was likely near for her, she curled into a ball in her bunk and prayed for the pain to stop.

Her body went into a hibernation-like mode for two months, her body systems slowing and her being practically unconscious (she turned 29 in the middle of suffering from the radiation). Twisting pains in her chest and abdomen would make her whimper in pain when she attempted to turn over, the radiation slowly eating away at her strength. The occasional times she would stir, she stumbled to inject her body with vitamins and medical augmenting serums before returning to her excruciating state of rest. When she woke up for good, there was a surprising lessening of pain from the radiation effects. Looking at her hands first, then a small pocket mirror, she was shocked to discover her appearance had changed into a state somewhat between human and ghoul. The top layers of her skin were flaking and falling away, leaving behind a torn, gaunt ghost of what she had once looked like. Denial of what she had become was quickly pushed aside, and she forced herself to accept her situation. No matter what she looked like, she was alive—more than could be said for many. _(Early 2078)_

Finding the bunker unbolted and dressing in her most covering clothes, Agatha emerged to find the sun shining down over a charred, blackened landscape so dissimilar to the one prior to the war. Minor exploration revealed the foundation of the home and greenhouse remained mostly intact, but the rest had been reduced to rubble and detritus. Heading to the Vault, she was dismayed to discover power had failed in some measure for the top two levels of the storage facilities, causing the temperatures to rise above their set degree and remove nearly 2/3 of the seeds from their viable state. However, the lowermost level had sustained no change in power level or temperature, meaning all seeds stored there were likely still usable. Five of the six fusion generators that powered that level were still operational, which gave her hope that the project wasn’t a complete loss. 

Over the course of a few weeks she rerouted some of the excess power from the Vault and made a small living place outside above ground. Agatha studied the local radiation levels and determined the amount of rads was minimal enough that it wasn’t affecting her in her ghoulish state, so other than wearing covering clothes she didn’t take any drastic precautions. She took inventory of what she would need to successfully rebuild the homestead while also adding on two medium greenhouses and a small, enclosed lab for running biological tests in the future. Luckily she had a few weapons stashed away in the irradiated bunker, and after practicing for a few days and making a survival pack to carry along, she took off for the ruins of Boston. It took a while for her to get used to the sight of skeletons in the streets from unfortunate many who never had much warning of the impending bombs, and the crumbling buildings left after the disaster were unsafe but she knew materials inside them would prove invaluable to her survival.

* * *

** Kindred Souls // Trial and Error **

What surprised her was when she came across another person in the ruins of a general store, a male ghoul in a much more progressed state than her own but with still enough of his humanity remaining that he greeted her and offered to help her on hearing her situation. Together Agatha and the ghoul, who introduced himself as Otis, dug through rubble and sorted through stores, gathering food, basic medical supplies, and other immensely useful finds into large duffel bags and even filling a few wagons. A pattern emerged where they would take their findings back to the homestead, rest up, and then return for more. Glass was the hardest thing to find intact, but on a trip to Salem they found a ruined church whose immense stained glass windows had shattered. Otis took those shards and those of other glass panes they had found and fashioned together full panes, albeit colorful patchwork ones. The two formed a good friendship during their work together, and when they finished the construction of the main buildings (with some help from a few other surviving ghouls they came across) they parted ways. She promised him that he would always be welcome at the homestead before he left. _(2078)_

The soil was still too irradiated to hold any use for growing plants, so Agatha set to building miniature cultivation enclosures in the two former storage levels where she could run tests on the soil and try to see what it would take to decontaminate it. For over 20 years she worked on perfecting a way to cleanse soil, occasionally making trips to various RobCo labs and other medical/scientific facilities and gathering mass amounts of untainted chemicals. Once she had developed the ideal balanced soil, it was time to crack open a few of the seed boxes and discover what kind of plant would actually survive the new conditions of the dirt. _(2101)_

Cross-referencing the box labels and the terminal entries that CIT had loaded into the Vault computers, she took sample seeds from several different storage areas and began trials for them all in the balanced soil. Because of the slow process, she moved to learning how to construct various useful tools and machines while her tests ran their course. Otis had gathered a plethora of various manuals and schematics and left them with her, so she studied them and worked to build water purifiers for the nearby lake that ran on windmill generators. It was a tough process and she got burns and bruises, but gave her something to occupy her mind with while the seeds grew.

Agatha’s first ‘crop’ was quite pathetic, only yielding a handful of half-grown foods and vegetables and none of them remotely edible. Discouraged but determined, she set her heart on growing a full crop of safe foods, no matter how long it would take.

58 years later, it was done: a near-perfect crop of carrots, grains, pumpkins, and small berry bushes yielded plenty of food in excess to what she could have ever hoped. Still, all of it was grown away from the natural sunlight and elements, and so her subsequent goal was to try out these successful crops on the surface. Otis, in the years it had taken her to grow her first real food plants, had swung by every now and then, and lived less than a mile away in a small abandoned trailer. The two often spent evenings together, talking and reminiscing of the days long past and the seemingly long future ahead of them both. (There was nothing romantic between the two; their relationship was more akin to siblings than anything.) _(2159)_

A common topic of discussion between the two ghouls was the future of them both in relation to turning feral. In their scavenging runs they had come across packs of feral ghouls, their brains and other bodily systems eaten away and many drifting listlessly in the ruins or the streets. Oddly enough, they didn’t ever attack either of them, which Otis suggested meant that they could sense the difference between humans and ghouls, even those not as progressed as they were. Agatha had taken in radiation for a set amount of time and her body had developed a decent resistance to the background rads that were left over in the Commonwealth, but Otis had been closer to where the bombs dropped when he turned into a ghoul. He said that he didn’t want to live on as a feral—and told her that if he ever became feral, he wanted her to make sure he wouldn’t harm anyone who wasn’t like them, even if it meant she would have to take his life. She prayed it wouldn’t come to that for decades, even centuries, but in the end she agreed to his plan, and asked him to do the same for her.

Every year in the fall months, Agatha (and sometimes Otis, if he was around enough to help) would gather in as many crops as they had and preserve some for the winter. The remaining food she would distribute to passing traders she had a positive repertoire with, or take them to nearby settlements of other survivors herself. Otis soon took up a job as a settlement guard for a newly-formed community near the coast, and though she was sad to see him leave she knew he was happy doing something he was good at. In time, loneliness set in, and she was eager to find someone or something to occupy her time or spend time with. _(2165)_

* * *

** Merlo****  _(see note at the bottom of this work)_

Her answer came one winter when Otis arrived on her front porch, covered in ash and grime but grinning as he handed her a small metal box. Opening it, she found a small, odd-shaped egg, which Otis explained was one taken from a huge scorpion-like creature he and a few of the other guards had killed. The box was insulated and the egg itself was wrapped in warming fabric, so he handed it off to her for study. She kept it warm underneath the artificial lights she used to grow plants in the Vault, and when it hatched she was astounded to see it was a pale, nearly clear baby scorpion that was giving off very small amounts of radiation. _(2171)_

Raising a scorpion when she had no previous knowledge of them was a true challenge, and there were times Agatha was pinched, stung, or hopeless that anything she was doing for the creature was right. It grew to the size of a small housecat in its first year, and never gained any overall coloring, instead staying a near-white and having very slight orange glows on its legs and tail. Eventually she made a covering for its stinger to protect herself from painful and potentially deadly stings, and trained the irradiated creature to stay calm and passive in order to receive food. She named the Radscorpion (once she had determined it was male) Merlo, and soon he scuttled behind her both in and out of the Vault. (2172)

Five years later, Merlo was half the size of her house and needed somewhere larger to stay. He had the habit of liking to burrow into the ground outside the greenhouse, and so Agatha constructed a small, open-ended hut for him to stay under when he came above-ground. For days, and sometimes weeks at a time, he would travel around and get his own food, but would always return eventually to the homestead and nestle close with her in the cool evenings. She trained him to run away and burrow under the ground rather than confront anyone who brandished a weapon; he had slowly grown on her, and she didn’t want to lose her hard-shelled companion to traveling wastelanders. _(2177)_

* * *

** Caring for an Old Soul // Losing a Friend **

Otis returned to the homestead for good in 2178, having grown tired of wandering and guarding the caravans and looking for a more peaceful life. He helped Agatha grow her crops, hunt wild game, and occasionally watched over the homestead when she made her trading rounds; he also moved his trailer to the side of her property to live nearby. She noticed he was growing slightly more irritable and short-tempered, and began a medical regimen to grow various medicinal/herbal plants for his aging body. Brewing calming teas, making poultices for any aches/sores he developed, and caring for him as well as her crops soon overtook the majority of her time. He had taken in quite a bit more radiation than she had in his travels, and so was edging closer and closer to becoming feral—a condition she didn’t want to admit was a nearing reality. _(2178)_

It was in the spring of 2195 when Otis began his rapid decline into near-feral state. Agatha brought him his food and helped dress him, but he often responded with little more than slurred, incomprehensible speech or grunts. His eyes took on a glassy state, and when she asked him questions to help jog his memory or hold conversation, he often forgot what they were talking about and was quiet. More of his underlying muscle structure could be seen through the patches of his skin, and less definition was visible when it came to his extremities and limbs. Sometimes the smallest things would make him angry and he would yell garbled words, even sometimes becoming physically violent until Agatha could talk him down and get him settled in his trailer. She obtained a few cuts and bruises from his episodes, but knew they were never directly aimed at her and so never blamed him.

On the morning of August 8th, 2195, Agatha brought her daily basket of food over to Otis’ trailer, and found him still in the bed, lying on his side and breathing heavily. She moved to shake him awake, wanting to make sure he was alright, but when his eyes opened and he faced her, there was a vacant yellow glow behind his gaze instead of the warmth she had seen in the years past. His movements were staggered and he never spoke any understandable word, instead chattering in garbled noises and sometimes humming. She collapsed into a chair, sobbing, knowing the man she had lived around for over a century—and her only friend—was truly gone. Watching him sniff at the food she had brought him, his gaunt expression curious and childlike, she ultimately understood the finality of his condition. There would be no cure she could make, no way to reverse his feral state, and she now had a choice to make. The hardest choice of her life.

She brought Otis his evening meal, just like always, and did her best to feed him. He whimpered like a child when food would spill, and butted against her hand when she had finished, thanking her in the only way he was still able to. With silent tears flowing she opened up a small canteen of the tea he had always liked and helped him drink it, wiping away the droplets that spilled from the corners of his mouth. He drank it all and then settled on his bed, laying back and falling asleep. Agatha sat nearby, her hands wrapped around one of his, listening as his breathing slowed and eventually stopped. She had mixed crushed leaves of a plant that aided in sleeping into his tea, as well as adding a strong sedative, both just enough that it would slow down his remaining body systems until everything would shut down completely. That night she didn’t leave the trailer, instead remaining in the chair and holding her friend’s hand as she did her best to remember everything they had been through—both the good and the bad.

It was a few days later, after she had buried Otis’ body behind the house and was moving is old things from the trailer into the house, that she found a letter he had written her. It was yellowed and was obviously from before he had turned regressively feral, written with the last ink remnants of some pen in his scrawling script. It was an apology to her for not having done more to stay with her through the years they had been together; he wrote that he felt sadness that he was going to leave her one day, knowing he would turn feral earlier than she would, but he was glad for the time they shared and the adventures they had. There were no tears left for her to cry, as she had already wept as much as she could for losing him. Instead, she took in his not-so-eloquent words and bit back a small smile, folding the letter up and holding it close—he was physically gone, but the letter he left behind would always let her remember the years they had faced the dangers and challenges of the Commonwealth together. _(2195)_

* * *

** Learning to Live Again **

It took half a year for Agatha to get back into the swing of things. She still had her Vault and the work that came with growing and producing plants, and needed to keep her crop up so as to provide food for the local settlements that were starting up nearby. Merlo, who was only a foot or so shorter than her greenhouses and twice as tall as she was, was her only company aside from the traveling caravans that would occasionally come by and trade with her. Loneliness was an ever-present challenge she had to face, not having anyone that she could really talk to and unsure if getting close to anyone else was worth it. Instead of branching out farther or even exploring the new communities that were rumored to be popping up across the ‘Wealth, she stayed around the homestead and buried herself in her farming work. _(2196)_

Years came and went, and Agatha sunk deeper into solitude. She had become largely self-sufficient, having crafted as good defenses as she could manage and using purifiers in the lake nearby for her water. Traders and caravans came on occasion, though she was aware that they were starting to pass by less than usual. When she questioned one of the traders she had known for some time, he tentatively admitted that though she provided more food to groups than other settlements and sellers did, ghouls were garnering a reputation for not being trustworthy and unstable. This stemmed from a handful of incidents in different communities of ghouls living in them that had turned feral and attacked others within the area. Common belief was that ferality in ghouls was unpredictable and violent, and that it could occur instantly. Yet she knew the truth, that in the majority of cases it was gradual and, though it was a surety for all ghouls in the future, was something they never wanted to happen. _(2206)_

Resolute to make a better name for ghouls who truly worked hard and cared about the normal humans, or ‘smoothskins’, Agatha started increasing her amount of food she distributed to local settlements. Other than food, she would bring natural remedies, medical supplies and clothing she had gathered and stored throughout the years to anyone that needed them. For almost 50 years she supplied groups of people with necessary provisions, ensuring that those who she communicated with knew that she was able to be trusted. She welcomed any wandering travelers that looked remotely friendly to stay in her home, if they needed a rest or just a peaceful respite before carrying on in their journeys. It wasn’t always easy, but she pushed on, wanting to make a positive name for ghouls everywhere. _(2253)_  

* * *

**A Helping Hand [WIP]** _(2256)_

_Will be added onto as Agatha’s and subsequent OCs stories are revealed._

 

**Reunions [WIP]** _(2256-2286)_

_Will be added onto as Agatha’s and subsequent OCs stories are revealed._  

* * *

** Present Day **

Agatha currently still lives in and on the Greene homestead, tending to her plants and constantly learning more about the strange flora of the Commonwealth. Her goal is to continue to study and develop on adapting pre-War seeds and saplings to the irradiated land of the local area, as well as to grow enough crops to provide for herself, her work companion [UPCOMING OC], and surrounding settlements who need food. After 200-plus years in the wastes, she knows how to spot a truly needful person from someone just looking for a handout, but is more than welcoming to passers-by and wanderers/scavengers in need of food, shelter, and supplies. Surprisingly, word of the seed vault surviving has yet to reach the ears of the scientists in the Institute, but she can only prepare for the inevitable—the day synths, or worse, show up and attempt to try and take control of her life’s work. Dedicated to the project and knowing little else in her life, she’ll defend the homestead and attached vault until her dying breath.

* * *

Extra Note 

** I'm aware scorpions give birth to live babies instead of having eggs. However, in-game there are Radscorpion eggs as consumables, and realistically eggs would likely survive longer in the wastes than tiny soft-shelled babies, so I decided to write that Merlo hatched and was raised like any baby animal coming from an egg. ~~Who needs realism?~~


End file.
